


Jovenshire and Sohinki: A Meta

by Stelia22



Series: Jovinki: Metas [1]
Category: Smosh
Genre: Analysis, M/M, Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-20
Updated: 2016-12-30
Packaged: 2018-09-10 14:59:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 11,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8921587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stelia22/pseuds/Stelia22
Summary: A meta (analysis) of the relationship between Jovenshire and Sohinki up to and including 20th October 2015.Jovinki (Jovenshire/Sohinki) is a ship that I absolutely love. This, especially at the time I wrote it, was my way of giving this ship that love.Because Jovinki (still) doesn't get enough love, and looking back can give one greater appreciation for the now.Or: An analysis of the first era of Jovinki.





	1. Introduction

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Why Kirk and Spock are Emotionally Compatible: An Essay on Tetrachromacy](https://archiveofourown.org/works/208885) by [Saucery](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saucery/pseuds/Saucery). 



> I learnt and loved the whole concept of meta because of it.  
> Also inspired by @KatGreyson's fanfic/moment compilation work, "Jovinki Evidence" on Wattpad.
> 
> Originally posted on Wattpad from 31st August 2015 - 20th October 2015, where it is still available.
> 
> Various Smosh Games videos are referenced in this meta. These video will be in bold with the time the referenced moment occurs in parentheses (brackets) so that you too can find these moments.
> 
> Disclaimer: Jovenshire and Sohinki are their own people, so obviously I do not own them. And if either of you (or anyone else who works or collaborates with them, such as the rest of Smosh Games, Smosh family, Warp Zone, their significant others, etc.) are reading this, I apologise profusely if this work makes you feel uncomfortable/offends you, as it was not my intention.

A little retrospective, as of 20th December 2016:

A year and 2 months ago, I published the 6th (and at the time final) chapter of this meta on Wattpad.

Since then, a lot has changed, and as you saw in the summary of this fic, I say that this meta covers the first "era" of Jovinki. What does this even mean? Why wasn't/isn't this on the Wattpad version?

I define each era of Jovinki by one specific characteristic: by how open each of them is with their affection for the other. When you read this meta, you'll see that it mostly leans a specific way (ie. one is more open than the other). Yet when you consider Jovinki today, it's actually evolved so that the "leaning" is in a different direction. Having watched most of the Smosh Games videos on the day of release since late 2014 onwards, I've watched this gradual evolution occur. It is this _gradual evolution_ that ultimately led me to come up with concept of "eras" for Jovinki. Like true eras, there's not really an exact date where one era just suddenly stopped and the other began. It's not clean cut like that. All we really have (in my theorising mind) is an approximate date where things started popping up that indicated change, where the characteristics of the first era mushed with characteristics of the second era before finally moving on to second era stuff. You'll understand (hopefully) exactly what I'm talking about once you've finished reading the main meta and I've re-explained myself in another retrospective at the end.

So on that note, when is the first era? The first era is (by my definition) from 26th September 2012 (when Smosh Games started) to 16th October 2015 (when Joven and Sohinki finally teamed up as a two-player team on Game Bang). The second era is anything after the 16th October 2015.

Now to the actual introduction.

_______________________________________________________________________

When I first started watching Smosh Games in mid-2014 (late, I know), what caught my attention was the fact that Lasercorn seemed to have better relationships with Sohinki and Jovenshire than Sohinki and Jovenshire had with each other. They were the classic trio: with Lasercorn in the middle.

The thing that really got me interested in the Sohinki-Jovenshire relationship, however, was the fact that Sohinki and Jovenshire as a two player team had, “yet to happen” (see **Smosh Games Game Bang** page on Smosh wiki) and that they had never been in a three-player team either (this was before [**Real Life Prop Hunt (Game Bang)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBUdyjbd_jA)).

That got me wondering: what’s going on? Why have they never teamed up? Would they come to blows – legitimate blows that would carry over into real life and affect their relationship off-camera – if they were to team up together?

At first I thought that they just didn’t really get along at all; that they would only be around each other in the company of other Smosh Games members. Sure, they did videos where it was just the two of them, but since there were comparatively fewer of them, I thought that they only did them out of obligation, not by choice. But they actually get along really well when it’s just the two of them (more on that later).

So then I thought that maybe they both liked Mari and were in this weird love triangle with Mari in the middle. After all, there is plenty of evidence for both Marhinki and Marishire – both Sohinki and Jovenshire are very obvious about their affection for her. Yet they show a lot of affection with each other too – at least, Joven does. He’s just very subtle about it.

Jovenshire is not someone you would classify as “subtle”. From Jovenrage to Joven Jokes to his charismatic nature, Joven’s about as subtle as a brick wall. This is the guy that describes himself as having, “an over-the-top personality” who “like(s) to talk” and “like(s) it when people listen to me” ([ **Bad Motivators Q &A**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYfQpDRnBpk), 6:02). So if he’s subtle about anything, there’s clearly something more going on; more than what one might initially think. And nothing embodies that more than how he is around Sohinki.


	2. Chapter 1: How Jovenshire is around Sohinki

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How Jovenshire was around Sohinki during the first era.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will admit that the first part of this chapter doesn't flow from the end of the introduction at all. My apologies for that.

Jovenshire and Sohinki have a weird dynamic; it doesn’t reflect the loud, dramatic and fun nature of the Smosh Games channel like every other relationship on the channel does. Their dynamic is so different that one might assume that they don’t get along and have an adversarial relationship. I certainly thought so, which is why I started looking at their dynamic in the first place (that and they (still) haven’t been in a two-player team yet).

Jovenshire and Sohinki are actually a lot like an old married couple. Whenever it’s just the two of them, there’s lots of jokes, lots of smiles, lots of poking and prodding as well as sexual innuendoes on the top. Such moments are present throughout videos such as [**F*ck Amnesia! (Sohinki Is Terrified)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvSIhqJFJWQ), [**Cloudberry Shenanigans (Dope! Of Nope)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YK8iUq83-VQ), [**We Get Tongued by Zombies (Dope! Or Nope)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c9ma3MvnRw) and [**Falling Hats are Weird! (Gametime w/ Smosh Games)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKrRq36laPc).

Even when it’s not just the two of them they have pretty much the same dynamic, but I will explain this dynamic in chapter four. What I want to do now is try to answer the question I proposed at the end of the Introduction: how is Jovenshire around Sohinki?

He’s googly-eyed, for starters. He’s always giving him fond looks and ends up smiling whenever he does (as pointed out by @KatGreyson). Joven’s always trying to make him smile and/or laugh and is definitely trying to impress him.

No, really.

Remember in  **[We blow ourselves up (Grand Theft Smosh)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lD8P_Yjbfk&t=43s)** where Jovenshire made those jokes at the beginning of the episode? He was definitely trying to impress Sohinki with those. He made the joke, “Would you say we are the milk men?” and then when Sohinki says that they’ll become the Suicide Squad in GTA, Joven says, “Wait, I have the tattoos of the group can I be your suicide girl?”

He said _your_ suicide girl. He could have said that he wanted to be _the_ suicide girl, but Joven says _your_ , so it sounds as though he specifically wants to be _Sohinki’s_ suicide girl and no-one else’s.

But Sohinki isn’t impressed with Joven’s jokes. Joven responds to this by saying, “you didn’t like my milk joke, you didn’t like my suicide girl joke.” Now, Joven could have said that _no-one_ liked his jokes because no-one else found them funny either. By saying that _Sohinki_ didn’t like his jokes, it shows that he said those jokes specifically to try and make Sohinki laugh and/or smile. He _cared_ about what Sohinki thought.

Joven caring about what other people think of him is strange in itself, let alone making up specific jokes because he thought _one specific person_ would like it. If Sohinki had not been there, I have no doubt that he wouldn’t have made those jokes (especially not the suicide girl joke).

I also have no doubt that Joven has given Sohinki and unusually high number of fond looks. There have been so many of them that I have long lost count. One of the more notable examples this is in **[Sohinki Comes in on a Wrecking Ball (Cage Match)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--kvmPkoAtM). ** When Joven’s getting lucky with scoring in the second round of their Peggle 2 Cage Match, Sohinki says that the Irish are, “very lucky” to which Joven responds by saying, “ ’cos I get to work with you,” while bending his head towards Sohinki and giving him an extremely fond, adoring look.

Something else that happens in that episode is that Sohinki turns to Joven and starts singing “Wrecking Ball” by Miley Cyrus (7:52). Joven just smiles to himself and closes his eyes, as if loves that Sohinki’s singing just to him but is trying not to read too much into i.

On that note, Jovenshire just loves Sohinki singing in general. There have been a few times that Joven has asked Sohinki to sing for him. One such example is in [**Lunchtime w/ Smosh Games (Bonus)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEwi7NH3sDQ) (3:20) when Joven and Sohinki are jamming out to a rap song on the radio in Joven’s car (with Lasercorn holding the camera in the back). But when the music turns into news, what does Joven do?

“I need music! Sing to me, Sohinki,” he demands.

This is Joven’s _default response_. He clearly loves Sohinki’s singing a lot for it to be the _first thing he thinks of_. Also, Joven says sing to _me_. Has Sohinki sung to him a lot then, when it’s just the two of them?

It’s not just the fond looks and his love of Sohinki’s singing that show that Joven is very affectionate towards Sohinki. In  **[Breaking Bad in GTA (Grand Theft Smosh)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90KeKKxEDTs&t=7s)** (12:10), Joven greets Sohinki by getting his avatar to blow a kiss to Sohinki’s avatar. Joven’s certainly affectionate by anyone’s standards, but nobody else has done anything resembling _blowing someone else’s avatar a kiss_.

Another kiss Joven has given Sohinki is in  **[Smosh Games fights to advance (Smosh Games Madden Rivals)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiLGsIzxll4&index=3&list=PLeImKFecYFCz0OeKkGws0jxL5ktdhM9_Q) ** when Joven kisses the top of Sohinki’s head at 3:25. Now, not many kisses have happened in Smosh Games. At that point, the only kiss that had happened was when Lasercorn kissed Ian’s hand during their punishment dance in **Just Dance 4 Hilarity (Game Bang)**. So Joven kissing Sohinki’s head was the first kiss that Joven had given out. Sure, Jovenshire is a very physically affectionate guy, but this is special, even for him.

Something else that’s special is the fact that he brings up Sohinki even when he’s not there. Take, for instance, [**Saints Row IV The Gloves are Off (Cage Match)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-mUr9SNnN4). Joven and Lasercorn are by themselves about to do their Cage Match punishment of a socker bopper fight (not to be confused with the socker bopper fight from **[Lasercorn vs Jovenshire Boxing Match (Raging Bonus)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzBlD0qiZ-k)** ). Now what does Joven say before the fight starts?

“Why isn’t Sohinki here to see this he’d love this,” Joven says.

 “He’s watching Dota 2,” Lasercorn replies.

Joven throws up his hands and says, “Argh”, almost as if he already knew the answer anyway. If you knew the answer already, Joven, why ask?

He does this again in **[We are in Finland! (Bonus)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtMmCy6xSJc). ** In this video, Joven and Lasercorn are _by themselves_ in Finland for a conference and as a vacation. And what does Joven do? Ask about Sohinki (at 3:09)! To quote exactly:

“What do you think Sohinki’s doing, like, right now?” he asks Lasercorn.

“Hearthstone or Heroes of the Storm,” Lasercorn answers.

Joven nods even before Lasercorn has finished speaking, so clearly he already knew the answer. Was Joven trying to start a conversation about Sohinki without being too obvious about it? As @KatGreyson said in Jovinki Evidence: You’re on vacation, _alone_ , with Lasercorn, yet all you’re thinking about is Sohinki.

At the beginning of this chapter, I said that Joven is goggly-eyed for Sohinki. That’s definitely true, but it’s more than that: he genuinely loves Sohinki as a person. He’s been trying to show him that he loves him in subtle ways, some of which have been described above. Yet Sohinki doesn’t seem to have taken notice at all. So what does Joven do?

Make some big declarations of love towards Sohinki.

One such declaration is in [**Sohinki’s Tower of Death (Grand Theft Smosh)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-Btv8gQFl4) where it’s Lasercorn and Flitz vs Sohinki and Joven in a “custom death map” that Sohinki created. At 3:38, Sohinki was about to get killed in the game but Joven stepped in front of him and took the hit for him so that he got killed instead. Upon doing so, Joven looked directly at the camera and said, “Sohinki, I want it to be known that I literally jumped in front of Flitz’s knife blade to protect you” (3:43). This was immediately followed by a replay of Joven saving Sohinki with Enqirue Iglesias’s song “Hero” being in the background. As if the music wasn’t enough, Joven emphasised “protect”, gestured with his hands for emphasis and looked directly at the camera the entire time. Joven’s clearly trying to tell Sohinki that he’ll be there for him and that he loves him. By editing “Hero” into the background, it seems as though the editor has picked up on what Joven’s trying to tell Sohinki.

Yet it seems as though Sohinki himself didn’t pick up on it: he still doesn’t know that Joven loves him.

All this would come to a head a few months later in **[Staying Alive in the Sims 4 (Bonus)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9d2VRfumb4)**. In this video, Joven, Sohinki and Lasercorn are trying to kill the Sims 4 avatars of themselves, Anthony, Ian, Mari and Flitz but were unsuccessful. At the end of the video, Sohinki says, “Apparently, we don’t need to bathe, we don’t need to shower-” Joven turns to look at Sohinki and replies, “Because our friendship is so strong that Sohinki, if you smell like poop, I’m still gonna love you buddy.”

Joven keeps looking at Sohinki. He’s waiting for Sohinki’s response. He’s spent so long trying to show Sohinki that he loves him: first subtly, and now with outright declarations. He’s waiting to see what happens when Sohinki finally knows for sure that Joven loves him.

So when Sohinki just keeps on talking like Joven’s declaration of love is the most normal thing in the world, Joven stares at him for a moment before letting out a short laugh. That sound is saying, “Of course you knew, you always knew. You just never said you knew because you’re not like that. You’re not like me, typically larger than life. You’re more subtle about things, but that doesn’t mean you don’t like me back.”

This conclusion seems to be very far-fetched: how could Sohinki love Joven? It’s not like Sohinki ever really reciprocated Joven’s fond looks, moments of affection or declarations of love.

Except he has. It’s just not very obvious.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sohinki’s side will be explained in the next chapter. Think of it as the precursor to what we're currently seeing in the second era of Jovinki =).
> 
> Thank you, once again, for reading. Let me know what you think of said theories so far, whether they're outdated and why, etc.
> 
> Next chapter will come out in 2 days as well.


	3. Chapter 2: From Sohinki's Perspective

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A look at Sohinki in the first era through my (highly subjective) eyes.

On the surface, Sohinki doesn’t seem to love Joven at all. He picks on him the most (which really is saying something), yells at him a lot whenever they team up together (on the rare times they do so in GTS) and can get very annoyed at him.

Yet he smiles and laughs much more in Joven’s presence, is physically affectionate towards him and tends to be more open and expressive around him.

The evidence?

The fact that Sohinki couldn’t stop laughing when Joven got run over in **[First Person Top Fun (Grand Theft Smosh)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HPtGCYM16w&list=PLeImKFecYFCzfGJ1euPhobbG1uFMXsQyw&index=96)** , for one. Sohinki himself has said that it was, “by far…the hardest I’ve laughed at anything in a while” ([ **Smosh Games Year in Review (Bonus)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hv_I-nRWW4s), 1:43). He actually laughed so hard when Joven got run over that it sounded like a baby version of Joven’s walrus laugh.

This is not the only time that the baby-walrus laugh has been unleashed. We’ve seen it in other videos such as [**Jovenshire Hates Green Shells (Cage Match)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8bmheOqa6k) and **Vetoing Our Favourite Items (Smosh Smash)**. But the thing that all three of these videos have in common is that each baby-walrus laugh was because of something Joven has done or said. In the first one, it was because Joven raged when he lost their Mario Kart cage match challenge. In the second, Sohinki bursts out laughing because Joven said to him that, “My people needed me in hell.”

There have also been times when Sohinki has shown a lot of fondness towards Joven. For instance, in [**Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 Destroys Us (Game Bang)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKB58J2G9aY) at 22:07, Joven yells out, “Asshole bang!” to Sohinki says, “And, don’t, ever, work, for – damn it Joven” turning to face him with a fond smile on his face. While everyone else is grossed out by Joven’s innuendo, Sohinki’s voice is fond, as if he knows that Joven’s like this and he loves him because of it. The fact that they cut to a close up two-shot of Joven and Sohinki shows that the editors took notice of this moment as well.

Sohinki’s fondness also manifests in [**Smosh Greatest Hits! (Raging Bonus)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyY_fMP0nck), in which Joven and Sohinki compete in a game of determining “what song the lyrics are from” with Mari running the show. Sohinki’s smiling and laughing the entire time, so it’s clear that Sohinki is comfortable with getting physical with Joven, which is something that I don’t think is typically characteristic of him.

Something else that’s not typically characteristic of Sohinki is letting Joven pick which games they play. He’s done this at least twice: once in  **[Princess Joven Talks Dirty (Cage Match)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjtISODpNuo)** (Joven picked F-Zero GX) and in  **[Joven Finally Wins (Smosh Games VS)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-aRLPsWmrM)** (Joven picked Halo 4). The former is important for a couple of reasons. Firstly, Sohinki actually checked Joven out, smiling to himself and casting his eyes down at Joven’s punishment outfit of a “slave Leia esque bikini top”. He even asks him to “give it a little shake” (2:30-2:48). Could it be that he was distracted by it and hence let him pick? Secondly, Sohinki let Joven choose the game in _cage match_ , a show in which the loser gets punished, and we all know how much Sohinki hates losing. He could have easily just chosen the game himself but he lets Joven pick, “whatever (he) wanted.” The latter video is important because he let Joven pick the game that they would _play with their fans_ that week. They usually take the audience’s suggestions very much into consideration (especially when playing with their community). Yet by letting Joven pick, Sohinki threw that completely out of the window. The reason? “Joshua really wanted to play (Halo).”

So Joven’s clearly special.

You know what else shows that Joven is special? The fact that Sohinki helped Joven during **[Exploding Taco Finale! (Game Bang)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOMLQJsblU8)**. At 4:42, Sohinki gives Joven a good card, telling him that, “I gave you something nice, I gave you something nice, did I give you something nice?” I’ve already mentioned that Sohinki hates losing, and Game Bang videos are no exception. Sohinki _explicitly_ helped Joven, which is unusual in itself. But he kept repeatedly saying “I gave you something nice”, his voice becoming increasingly more desperate each time. It’s as though he kept repeating it to try and get Joven to understand the significance of his actions. It’s as though he’s saying, “I love you. Don’t you know that? I’m showing you that I love you by not screwing you over.”

Oh yes, Sohinki definitely loves Joven.

So if Sohinki loves Joven, Joven loves Sohinki (telling him so multiple times) and Sohinki knew that Joven loved him all along, why hasn’t something happened yet?

It’s like when your crush smiles at you a lot, talks very openly with you and is very affectionate towards you, leading you to think that they like you back.

Then you realise that they’re like that with everyone else too.

Make no mistake: Joven’s love and affection for Sohinki are completely sincere. It’s just that Sohinki doesn’t think it _means_ anything. And why would it? Joven’s a very affectionate person by nature (with Sohinki being the complete opposite). Unless you examine Joven’s actions closely, it doesn’t seem as though Joven’s actions towards Sohinki are in any way unique, let alone mean that Joven loves him romantically.

So whenever Joven makes a big (or small) declaration of love or show Sohinki some affection, Sohinki has definitely reciprocated Joven’s affection but at the same time is trying not to read too much into it. Take, for instance, **[Staying Alive in the Sims 4 (Bonus)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9d2VRfumb4)**. As Joven is telling him that he’ll still love him at 11:35, Sohinki casts his eyes down slightly before glancing at him. When he turns back to face the computer screen and starts talking, he says, “And, we, you know what, is interesting” and keeps glancing at Joven while he’s talking. What makes this moment so important is that Sohinki doesn’t usually stutter or mess up his words (unlike Joven). From my perspective, it seems as though Sohinki cherishes Joven’s confession but is trying not to read too much into it because, well, Joven’s like that with everyone.

I also think this is how he interpreted Joven’s kiss on the top of his head in [**Smosh Games fights to advance (Smosh Games Madden Rivals)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiLGsIzxll4). He cherishes it but thinks that it could have just been something that happened in the euphoria of Sohinki scoring for their team – something that Joven would have done with anyone else in Sohinki’s position.

Another case of this thinking is when Joven’s avatar blew a kiss to Sohinki’s in [**Breaking Bad in GTA (Grand Theft Smosh)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90KeKKxEDTs). Sohinki responded to the kiss by smiling to himself and said, “Aw”, which shows that he likes it. He could have been grossed out by it, but he’s not: quite the opposite, in fact. It’s as though he finds it really cute but is trying not to say anything more in case he reads too much into it. He reacted the same way when Joven said he was lucky to work with Sohinki in **[Sohinki Comes in on a Wrecking Ball (Cage Match)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--kvmPkoAtM)**.

You know what Sohinki also cherishes? Singing for Joven. He treated Joven’s demand in  **[Lunchtime w/ Smosh Games (Bonus)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEwi7NH3sDQ)** like it was the most normal thing in the world, calmly asking him, “What do you want me to sing?” He also burst out into dubstep in  **[Hunting in Adult Minecraft (Backseat Gaming)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4BBtg0u-IM)** after Joven made a poop noise that he thought sounded like dubstep (4:01-4:18).  Not only does this particular moment show that he loves singing for Joven, it also shows that he tends to be more open and expressive around him. And have you noticed that the periods of time when Sohinki’s the most expressive on the Smosh Games channel corresponds with the times where Sohinki and Joven are in more videos together?

So to answer how Sohinki could love Joven (as asked at the end of the last chapter) the answer is that Joven makes Sohinki smile and laugh and has helped him open up as an individual. Sohinki has definitely reciprocated Joven’s love and affection for him but has done so in subtle ways because he thinks it doesn’t mean anything special.

We all know that Joven’s love for Sohinki is special, and that Sohinki’s love for Joven is also something special. But their dynamic is also so wonderful and that’s what I’ll be looking at in the next chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas everyone! Let me know what you think in the comments below. Next chapter will be in two days =).


	4. Chapter 3: Their dynamic (part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys had a wonderful Christmas.
> 
> This is the first of 2 parts addressing Joven and Sohinki's dynamic. I’ve always found their dynamic quite fascinating, but even so, I won’t be able to discuss every aspect of it. Regardless, I hope you guys enjoy the way I’ve explored it (in this chapter and the next).

Right from the beginning, Jovenshire and Sohinki have known exactly how to push each other’s buttons to effectively provoke the other. When they first met, Joven felt intimidated by Sohinki because he was dressed in, “a suit and a tie” for what they thought was an interview for Mahalo Games. On the other side, Sohinki’s first impression of Joven was that, “he hated (Joven)” because Joven kept answering all of the questions that the interviewer was asking instead of letting him say anything.

It’s not surprising that Sohinki prods Joven, yet he seems to do so more effectively than anybody else. One way that Sohinki prods Joven is by (accurately) imitating him. For instance, after Joven says that he, Sohinki, Wes and Flitz will be playing Smash Tour for the first time in  **[Getting Wrecked in Smash Tour (Smosh Smash)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uhvi54gATM)** (0:19), Sohinki repeats what Joven said in a really high pitched voice, “We haven’t actually done (Smash tour).” Joven frowns before saying in a low-pitched voice, “I do not sound like that.” He is peeved enough by Sohinki’s imitation that he _doesn’t even use contractions like he normally does._ In fact, I cannot recall any other occasion where Joven has not used contractions. As for Sohinki, he looked directly at Joven when he was imitating him, which shows that Sohinki specifically aimed to provoke him _._ He doesn’t just imitate his voice, though. In [**The Birds and the Bees (Smosh Smash!)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Nm16gt7EbY), Sohinki copies Joven’s hand gestures while Joven is explaining the rules of the “everything is random” mode that he, Sohinki and Wes are playing (0:21-0:38). When Joven points out that, “I can see you in the (camera)” in a slightly annoyed tone, Sohinki chuckles quietly and smiles to himself. But at the same time, Sohinki was supressing his laughter in an attempt to hide how funny he really thought Joven’s reaction was.

Sohinki is a man of subtlety. If he’s obvious about something, there’s clearly something else going on. And given how obvious he is about purposefully provoking Joven, there’s clearly something else going on.

So it’s pretty clear that Sohinki has done particular things to specifically try and provoke Joven. But there have been times when Joven has done the same thing to Sohinki.

Take **[Completely smashed w/ The Completionist (Smosh SMASH)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KR2l1GvSJn8)** , for instance. After being likened to Kanye West and winning the Target Smash challenge, Joven spread his arms out and looked directly at Sohinki while saying, “Dropping the mike with Ike and going boom baby.” A moment later Sohinki replies in a deadpanned voice, “Stop it Kanye.”

Note that Joven was entirely focussed on provoking Sohinki. He _only looked at Sohinki_ ; he didn’t even glance at Lasercorn, the one who likened him to Kanye West in the first place; he certainly didn’t glance at their guest, The Completionist; and he didn’t pan his eyes around the entire room either. Joven also burst out laughing after Sohinki’s retort, showing that he deliberately chose his words in such a way that he would provoke that kind of response from Sohinki.

Joven does the exact same thing in  **[Ghost in Apocalyptic LA (Dope! or Nope)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTIsUUlDLX4)** at 0:16 when he says that they are playing, “Gangster Hosts” instead of Call of Duty: Ghosts before turning to Sohinki and finishing off by gesturing towards himself and saying, “Like me.” But this time, Sohinki blinks and says in a deadpanned voice, “You’re, the, exact opposite of a gangster!” Sohinki kept pausing, which isn’t something that he usually does.

Why is this important? Well, if you compare these two moments where Joven provoked Sohinki, Joven’s actions and reactions are exactly the same regardless of whether there are other people around or not. But Sohinki kept pausing when it was just the two of them (in **[Ghost in Apocalyptic LA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTIsUUlDLX4)** ). These slight pauses show that he was clearly affected by what Joven has said but was trying not to show it. But it also shows that he was hiding how he felt to an even larger extent during **[Completely smashed w/ The Completionist](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KR2l1GvSJn8)**. Why? _Because there were other people around._

For instance, look at **[Top 5 Moments in Smosh Games](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ov7-BS5kOfY)**. After Joven sums up the things they’ve done to him in the first year of Smosh Games at 4:52, Sohinki says, “Would you say that you’ve been waxed off?” Joven then turns to Sohinki and replies with, “I’ve been waxed off, I’ve been shot on and-”. From the look on Joven’s face this seems to be what he would say if he and Sohinki were alone. He doesn’t particularly care whether there are other people around or not. But Sohinki fights back a smile and shakes his head when he says, “Nope, phrasing.” It’s as though he’s saying, “Don’t say that, we’re not alone Joven, we’re on camera damn it!” Why would Sohinki try and hide his feelings? Because Lasercorn (and the cameras) are around too.

And why wouldn’t Sohinki try and hide how he feels? It’s not like Joven is any different whether it’s just the two of them or there are other people around too, right?

Not always.

In [**Giant Sword of People (Dope! or Nope)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoAlWsHR_lc), Joven says that, “Happiness does not exist. Let that be known” (0:42). Joven is usually very confident and optimistic; as Sohinki points out seconds later, Joven’s motto is, “Be happy, live out loud, all that stuff.” While Joven is a very open person, I actually think that he was more open in that moment than he usually is. How so? He was calmer and more toned down. Joven resembled a normal person, which from a typical person’s standpoint isn’t significant at all. But for someone with an over-the-top personality (like Joven), anything resembling normalcy is an anomaly. This is a rare moment where Joven shows his softer, vulnerable side behind the larger-than-life personality. Joven _trusts_ Sohinki with that side of himself.

Of course, just because they hide (or are less open with) the way they feel whenever they are not alone does not mean that it’s unnoticeable. In fact, there have been moments where either Sohinki or Joven show the other affection, seemingly thinking that they are alone even though they are not. One such moment has already been discussed earlier in this chapter: the moment when Joven made sexual innuendoes towards Sohinki in **[Top 5 Moments in Smosh Games](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ov7-BS5kOfY)**. Another moment is in **[Sweet, Sweet Candy Balls (Game Bang)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQOi8zaAAv4)** , where Sohinki smiles before pulling down one of Joven’s arms and whispering into his ear at 7:13. He definitely attempted to hide his affection; he _put his hand over his mouth_ while whispering to Joven. In the next shot of the video with Sohinki, he keeps glancing over at Joven, after which he ends up looking like a deer in headlights. It’s as though he got lost in his own world and suddenly remembered that, oh wait, we’re filming, need to get back on track. Joven himself was distracted too yet was trying to hide it: he was smiling and attempting not to laugh at whatever Sohinki said.

But to make things even more confusing, there have been times where Joven and/or Sohinki have been completely overt about their affection for the other without a care, even when there are other people around too. One of the earliest examples of this is in [**We Steal Sh*t in Thief! (Backseat Gaming)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQbYcZZ710E) where Joven says, “You (and Flitz) look really cute together” at 5:48 at Sohinki and Flitz put their hoddies up, after which Sohinki casually yells back, “You’re cute!” Sohinki doesn’t even _care_ that Flitz is right next to him and that Lasercorn’s in the background. Another example is in [**Our Dirty Past (Bonus)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mr8qEDQeOt8), where Sohinki moves his body strangely (almost hip thrusting) at 2:54 while looking _directly at the camera_ , which Joven is holding. Sohinki seems to be putting on a show for Joven without a care that Lasercorn is with them as well. One of the more recent examples is during [**7 Second Challenge (Bonus)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QctOdteSH_s) where at 2:48 Joven says, “I’m gonna do Sohinki” to which Sohinki calmly replies, “You’re gonna do Sohinki? Oh I don’t know about that.” Neither Joven nor Sohinki even attempted to hide the sexual implications of what they have said, even though Wes, Flitz, Lasercorn and Mari (and all the cameras) were there as well. And of course, Joven says, “I love your d so much” at 4:33 during [**Rocket League Domination (Game Bang)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJdz2B7Qfmc), completely disregarding the fact that everyone else was there too.

On that note, Joven and Sohinki seem to alternate being completely open and completely closed off about their affection for each other. Sohinki seems to alternate between being overtly affectionate to Joven and hiding it as much as possible, while Joven alternates between treating Sohinki the same as everyone else and then being more open and (even more) obvious about his affection for Sohinki.

But it’s like when you really like someone and you simultaneously want to be close to them and run away from them. So whenever you’re with them, you poke and prod them all the time to try and mask your feelings. What ends up happening is that you give off mixed signals to the other person, making it appear as though you hate them (when it’s really the opposite). But the other person is able to decipher what you are really trying to say. They want to let you know that you don’t need to hide your affection for them because they feel the same way, so they end up telling you that they love you all the time. But this person is also scared of just outright telling you everything because, well, what if they’ve read the situation wrong? From the declarations of love that the other person has made, you know that they love you, yet this person is extremely affectionate in general, so you think that what they’re saying is not special. But you still love this person a lot, so you try and show them that you love them by, well, poking and prodding them all the time. And the cycle starts all over again.

Sound like something that could be applied to Joven and Sohinki?

Given some of the YouTube comments, it’s pretty clear that some people think that Sohinki genuinely does not like Joven because he teases Joven the most. Yet Joven knows that Sohinki loves him in his own way, so he keeps telling him that he loves him to make sure Sohinki knows exactly how Joven feels (as discussed in chapter 1). But, of course, Sohinki does really think it means anything, hence why he keeps trying to hide how he feels (as discussed in chapter 2). And the whole poking and prodding thing? It’s precisely _because_ Sohinki loves Joven that he Sohinki does that precisely _because_ he loves Joven and it’s the way he shows him that he loves him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. Next chapter will be in 2 days.


	5. Chapter 4: Their dynamic (part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is part 2 in the analysis of Jovenshire and Sohinki’s dynamic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this part, I’ll shed some light on some of the typical aspects of Joven and Sohinki’s dynamic (at least in the first era).

We know from the previous chapter that Sohinki pokes and prods Joven because he loves him. Whenever he imitates Joven, that’s a display of love. Whenever he physically prods Joven, that’s a display of love. He’s like the little boy in primary school who pulls his crushes pigtails because he likes her but is too scared to tell her out of fear of rejection.

There are many examples of Sohinki physically prodding Joven. In [**Rock Climbing Fail (Game Bang)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zz_8gTI2sqM), Sohinki gently shoves Joven at 1:10 after Joven starts singing, “I love Rocky Road” and he does the same thing in  **[Sohinki Comes in on a Wrecking Ball (Cage Match)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--kvmPkoAtM)** at 11:09.

Joven pokes and prods Sohinki too. In [**Zombie Smashing in Dying Light (Gametime w/ Smosh Games)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0acp0hV-D0), Joven tickles Sohinki’s chest at 6:00-6:19 after Sohinki grabbed the zombie’s boobs and Joven literally poked Sohinki’s upper lip in [**Staying Alive in Sims 4 (Bonus)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9d2VRfumb4) at 1:02.

Both of them are clearly comfortable with getting physical with each other; the entire premise of [**Smosh Greatest Hits! (Raging Bonus)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyY_fMP0nck) and both slap bets prove that. This means that there’s some sort of inherent trust between them (that they won’t actually hurt each other, for instance).

Of course, it could be argued that this inherent trust doesn’t mean anything; that Joven would be alright with this kind of stuff if it involved anyone. But if Joven didn’t trust Sohinki, he wouldn’t always give him his glasses whenever he takes them off.

He does this in [**Team Iancorn on an Adventure (Game Bang)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UBESHwyGd8) (8:49) and in **[Oh the Injustice! (Game Bang)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kTh0a84nCY)**. In the former video, it could be argued that he gave them to Sohinki simply because he was closest to him. However, in the latter video, Joven takes his own glasses off at 12:26 and Sohinki is seen holding Joven’s glasses at 12:28 _even though he’s the furthest away from him_. Joven could have handed his glasses to Lasercorn, who was sitting _right next to him_. He could have handed them to Anthony or even Mari without having to reach too far. Yet Joven took off his own glasses and chose to give them to the one person that he had to reach around someone else to get to: Sohinki.

Glasses are very fragile. You need to trust someone a lot to give them your glasses. And given that Joven has given Sohinki his glasses on multiple occasions, Joven clearly trusts him too.

So trust is one part of Sohinki and Joven’s dynamic. Another part of their dynamic is the fact that they worry about each other. In [**Ghost Pepper Challenge (Bonus Video)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azs01_MCiBg), after Joven gets the ghost pepper, Sohinki kept asking whether Joven was OK or not, particularly at 4:51. However, he always asked very quietly, showing that he attempted to be subtle about his concern. Still, he ended up being overt enough that several of the comments pointed out that Sohinki was nice to Joven “for once.”

Sohinki’s worry for Joven during **[Raging with Portal (Game Bang)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjyoyjsg_PU)** , however, was not nearly so obvious. In fact, it’s only because Sohinki himself said that he was worried that his worry could be deciphered at all. He revealed that he had been worried when he talked about Portal 2 in **[Games that F**ked With Our Heads (Why We’re Single)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QxT0gv_p4A)**. To quote, Sohinki said, “I mean, poor Joven, all he could do was say portal.” I don’t think Sohinki has ever said “Poor ___” about anyone else. On another note, notice that he was _alone_ when he said that, yet the specific moment Sohinki referred to happened in a video where everyone else was around too. To go back to what I had been discussing in the previous chapter, was Sohinki afraid to say something because that would make his concern (and feelings) for Joven obvious because there were other people around too?

We all know that Joven worries about Sohinki. One of many examples is in  **[You Shall Be Punished! (Bonus)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6ER4IZy08U)** Joven is so concerned for Sohinki during the cheeseburger challenge, even wiping his forehead with a napkin at 5:45. Another example is in  **[Princess Joven Talking Dirty (Cage Match)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjtISODpNuo)** where Joven ended up being so worried about Sohinki potentially having a faulty controller that it caused him to lose one of their races (4:07).

Of course, one could argue that this is just how Joven is and that Sohinki isn’t special. But if Sohinki wasn’t special, Joven wouldn’t have gotten jealous when Wes kept poking Sohinki’s ears in [**We Suck at Drawing! (Game Bang)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urxk-92FOrU). The evidence of Joven’s jealousy? The fact that he swatted Wes’s hand away (0:24) _and then proceeded to poke Sohinki’s ears_ himself. He didn’t want anyone else touching Sohinki; he wanted him to himself.

Sohinki gets jealous too. There’s [**Super Mario 3D World (Game Bang)** ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pICagndRDoU)where Sohinki looks on jealously as Mari and Joven eat their donuts for the punishment. But during the body painting punishment in [**Awkward Body Painting! (Game Bang)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS-nodx5ry8), the editors _zoomed in_ on Sohinki’s reaction, changed the footage to black-and-white and blended everyone else’s voices while they were doing the punishment (at 12:45). These three techniques used by the editors all appear to model Sohinki’s thought process in that moment; he’s seemingly consumed by his own jealousy. And you know what? Sohinki quickly glanced at the camera as though he knew that the editors would pick up on his reaction and emphasise it (which is exactly what they did). He looked as though he was trying really hard to hide his own feelings but knew that the editors (and hence the viewers) would pick up on them anyway.

But was Sohinki jealous of Joven or was he jealous of Mari? It’s difficult to answer this question for either moment because Sohinki masked his feelings well enough that he could have easily been jealous of either one of them. However, if he was jealous _of_ Joven (and wanted to be Mari instead), the following two events would not have happened. First, Sohinki would not have found it adorable and sweet (with no hint of jealousy) when Flitz said he wasn’t going to draw Mari, “with a big ’ole butt” in **[We Suck at Drawing (Game Bang)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urxk-92FOrU)**. Second, Sohinki wouldn’t have cared when Joven said, when Joven said, “Wes is my best friend not Sohinki” at the beginning of **[Bullet Proof Van in GTA V (Grand Theft Smosh)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwjajzEwdGg)**. The evidence that he cared? His instant retort of, “F*ck you…straight up eat a dick.” So it seems as though Sohinki wanted to be with Joven and was jealous of Mari.

Another aspect of Joven and Sohinki’s dynamic is the various sexual innuendoes they throw at each other. Videos with such innuendoes include  **[Nic Cage Joins the Gang (Grand Theft Smosh)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0zxSwTvy8k)** (5:18-5:26) and [**Dump Truck Killing Spree (Grand Theft Smosh)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuEuvVjWKiw) (1:54-2:00).

Yet everyone in Smosh Games throws sexual innuendoes and jokes at each other: that’s just how they are. It’s not significant that Joven and Sohinki do the same.

That is, until you realise that some of these references are far more romantic than sexual, which is most certainly _not_ the way everyone is with each other. Take, for instance, when Sohinki says, “Get out of my dreams and into my car” during [**We Start a Gang War (Grand Theft Smosh)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1TUrGuCKyc) (2:54). Not only does this have more romantic implications than sexual, this moment can actually be linked to [**Dirty Secrets in Adult Loaded Questions (Game Bang)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8M1gV7TBi_M) when both Sohinki and Joven write down each other in response to who they would _not_ want to think about in a fantasy, which, as Mari points out (at 14:33), implies that they wrote each other down precisely _because_ they have thought about each other in fantasies. In [**Breaking Bad in GTA (Grand Theft Smosh)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90KeKKxEDTs), Joven and Sohinki are on a motorcycle together about to drive into a tunnel. At 8:43, Sohinki points out, “This is about to be a Looney Tunes moment we’re going into the train tunnel.” Soon after, Joven points out that, “This is a little, um, I don’t know…two men on a motorcycle…” He says it as though he is fully aware of the romantic implications of them being on the motorcycle together.

In fact, Joven and Sohinki have gone so far as to liken themselves to romantic things in pop culture. In **[Tour De Forest Gump (Grand Theft Smosh)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahxIQdSmSaI)** , Joven joins Sohinki’s team after his screen freezes during a race. Upon joining him, he says, “Alright, come on Sohinki, I’m gonna be your Bonnie to your Clyde.” From this, it’s clear that Joven has likened himself to Bonnie Parker and Sohinki to Clyde Barrow. In [**Killer Kawaii Girls (Grand Theft Smosh)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzH5opIoPa), Joven tries to get Sohinki to jump on the back of his motorcycle at 7:49 so that he can take him to the strip club. After Wes runs Sohinki over, Joven yells out that he will save Sohinki. After Sohinki blows Wes up, he yells out “Protect me Joven” with a big grin on his face. Then Joven yells out, “Yeah! To the strip club! Come with me if you want to – this is the worst Terminator ever.” So Joven has likened himself and Sohinki to Kyle Reese and Sarah Connor from Terminator, respectively.

Another aspect of Joven and Sohinki’s dynamic is singing together. They sing a lot: I’ve already talked about Joven demanding Sohinki to sing and Sohinki responding calmly in  **[Lunchtime with Smosh Games](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEwi7NH3sDQ) ** in previous chapters. But this is nowhere near the only time they have sung together. As stated by @Jovinki in the comments, they end up singing in nearly every Backseat Gaming. Examples include [**Hunting in Adult Minecraft (Backseat Gaming)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4BBtg0u-IM) (at 2:10 and 5:54) and during [**We Suck Blood at Nosgoth (Backseat Gaming)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF4ytDbWrhk). As pointed out by @thesummertimewaffle, Sohinki sings “Fly Me to the Moon” by Frank Sinatra in the latter video, which he attempted to do the entire episode. This included the end of the video, which caused Joven to smile and say that it was, “beautiful”, even though Sohinki had raged quit only seconds earlier. They just end up singing, period, particularly Sohinki. This has happened in videos such as [**Falling Hats are Weird (Gametime w/ Smosh)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKrRq36laPc) and  **[Playing God in GoatZ (Gametime w/ Smosh)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fx0tgoeRFc)** (at 0:28-0:41 and 2:36). Sohinki has burst out into song much more frequently recently around other people too, but it was originally Joven and Sohinki’s thing (just like how Backseat Gaming was originally Sohinki and Lasercorn’s thing – they were the only two in the title card, after all).

What else is Sohinki and Joven’s thing? Appearing in each other’s segments in the show Why We’re Single. They’ve been bringing each other up since the second episode ( **[Best Video Game Villains (Why We’re Single)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEzC3gzbVzw)** ), usually to bag the other out or dispute the other’s opinion. One of many examples is at 4:02 in the aforementioned video when Sohinki said that if King Menos from Dante’s Inferno were to smell Joven he would say, “Douche-bag”. Another example is at the beginning of [**Good ‘Ole Fashion Bar Brawl (Why We’re Single)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=by3u4tlr12c) when Joven says that, “You’re only as strong as your friends, which in that case, man, we must be really weak – have you seen Sohinki?” Note that he literally bags out Sohinki in the _first eleven seconds_ of the video. This is yet another demonstration that Joven is very effective at provoking Sohinki. In earlier Why We’re Single episodes Joven and Sohinki were always in the backgrounds of each other’s videos, something which was exclusive to them until Lasercorn (and eventually Flitz) joined them in the later episodes. Joven even made an on-screen appearance during Sohinki’s segment in [**Lasercorn Stole a Portal Turret (Why We’re Single)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8aF32l8n38) at 6:03 when he ran into Sohinki hard enough to propel him out of the frame while yelling, “Give me my dragon!”

So from bringing each other up to being in the backgrounds of each other’s segments and even making on-screen appearances, it really is their thing.

They haven’t just appeared in each other’s video segments, though. They’ve appeared in other videos together outside of Smosh Games: videos on their own personal channels (such as [**F*ck Amnesia! (Sohinki is Terrified)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvSIhqJFJWQ) and **[Playing some ToeJam and Earl with Joven (Part 1)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpWZskCEPO0)** , as pointed out by @Jovinki) and most recently [**San Diego Comic Con: Smosh Games’ Josh Ovenshire and Matt Sohinki bro-down** ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT5Jvx4yWNc)(as mentioned by @KatGreyson in **Jovinki Evidence** ). All of these moments have been filled with Jovinki moments ranging from affection to fun-loving teasing, poking, prodding and everything in between.

They don’t just keep appearing on each other’s videos; all this extends even beyond YouTube. It’s been pointed out by @AnnabelleLYN_R05 and @thesummertimewaffle in the comments that they often appear in other social media together such as each other’s twitter photos and Instagram posts where it has been noted that Sohinki and Joven tend to be next to each other in such photos. Sohinki has even posted up little videos on his Instagram where he has filmed Joven in their daily lives.

So what has happened over time is that they have become more open about their affection for each other without really caring whether other people are around too or not. We continue to see this in the photos that they post on other social media and we continue to see them in the Smosh Games videos. In  **[Vetoing our favourite items (Smosh Smash!)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTAvzoq7d9E)** Sohinki burst out into free, uncontrolled laughter after Joven said that, “My people needed in me in hell” (7:59), throwing his head back as he did so. It’s like Joven and Sohinki were the only ones in the room (even though Lasercorn was there too). And in [**Escaping the Slaughterhouse! (Game Bang)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTAvzoq7d9E) Joven gets Sohinki begging for beggin’ strips by asking him as though he were an adorable puppy. Both Sohinki and Joven were grinning the entire time. This is notable for Sohinki because he usually doesn’t like punishments. It doesn’t seem as though he typically begs for anything either, given that Mari says, “You’re gonna make him want to beg?” in a sceptical voice. It’s also notable for Joven because he was not like this with Lasercorn, to whom he had held beggin’ strips out for only seconds earlier. And the other thing? They don’t give a damn that everyone else is around too.

That’s the beauty of Jovenshire and Sohinki’s relationship: it has always been one of those everlasting, slow-burn relationships but its flame has gotten brighter and bolder with time, just as they have gotten bolder in showing their love and affection for each other. It’s one of those relationship that takes a while to figure out, but once you do, the signs of their mutual affection become fairly obvious.

And that’s what makes their relationship so different to their relationships with anybody else. It’s all about the little subtle moments hidden in the dark; the body language; the facial expressions; the hidden meaning behind the words that they say to each other. It’s these things that define their relationship.

Finding these kind of moments are like finding Wally in Where’s Wally puzzles: tough to find, easy to miss and can never be unseen once found.

But they’re beautiful – they themselves and their dynamic. It’s radiant, it’s amazing and you’ll always revel in the beauty of it.

And the best thing? This is just the beginning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Of the second era.  
> (By the way, I totally didn't anticipate or predict what the second era has brought so far, but my GOD am I delighted to have it.)
> 
> That concludes the second part of Joven and Sohinki’s dynamic as well the main part of the meta. There will be 2 bonus chapters that didn't fit into the main narrative of this meta but are still relevant bits of information. I'll post the first one in 2 days, so see you all then.


	6. Bonus chapter: The Jovinki shippers within Smosh Games

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone at Smosh Games is a shipper to some extent. These are moments in the first era where they shipped Jovinki.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Between the time that I wrote this chapter and the previous, Joven and Sohinki had finally teamed up as a two-player team in Blindfolded Super Mario Maker (Game Bang).

I mentioned in chapter 1 that Joven’s avatar blew Sohinki’s avatar a kiss in **[Breaking Bad in GTA (Grand Theft Smosh)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90KeKKxEDTs)**. What I didn’t point out was the fact that Flitz pitched in by saying, “That was so cute…”

There have been many moments that show that Joven and Sohinki are shipped by the other members of Smosh Games. This is the chapter where I celebrate these moments.

Flitz is definitely the most obvious Joven/Sohinki shipper out of all of them. He was the first one to say their pairing name, Jovinki, on the channel (during [**Exploding Kittens Finale (Game Bang)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOMLQJsblU8) at 4:56) and has added his two cents into several Jovinki moments. One such moment is, of course, when he said that the kiss Joven blew to Sohinki was cute. Yet Flitz trailed off as though he wasn’t sure that they would be OK with what he was implying. What’s interesting is that this moment occurred around two months after Sohinki said that Joven was cute in **[We Steal Sh*t in Thief!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQbYcZZ710E)** ; which, as described in previous chapters, was one of the first moments in which Sohinki was outright about his affection towards Joven in the presence of others. Flitz may have picked up on two things in that moment: Sohinki’s affection for Joven and that he wasn’t open about it in the presence of others. The former explains Flitz finding the kiss cute and the latter explains Flitz trailing off as he said so.

Another Jovinki moment that Flitz put his two cents into was in [**Blindfolded Super Mario Maker! (Game Bang)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giFspaxivD0). After Sohinki said that he was bad at Mario (at 2:46), Flitz pointed out that, “(It’s) not very try-hardy of you at all.” Flitz is referring to Sohinki’s role in the group as the resident try-hard. Flitz’s tone of voice indicates that this kind of admission is not an often occurrence – quite rare, in fact. The implication here is that Sohinki is completely deviating from the norm (ie. being a complete try-hard). And what could he possibly be deviating from the norm for?

Joven, that’s what.

It’s just like how Sohinki let Joven pick the games they played; Sohinki not being try-hardicus (and openly, without a care, at that) shows that Joven is special.

So Flitz knows that there’s something more with Joven and Sohinki; in other words, he knows what’s up.

Mari also knows what’s up. In [**Dirty Secrets in Adult Loaded Questions (Game Bang)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8M1gV7TBi_M), the first question for lightning round is, “Who would you hate to be thinking about during a fantasy?” after which it is revealed that Sohinki and Joven answered each other (14:30). The next shot in the video is a close-up shot of Mari saying that, “I feel like the fact that you guys wrote each other immediately might of maybe perhaps thought of each other before.” She’s implying that maybe it’s precisely _because_ they like each other so much that they don’t want to think about the other. This links back to the concept of simultaneously wanting to be close to and run away from someone that you really like, which was covered in chapter 3. This is supported by both Joven and Sohinki’s reactions; Joven says, “No, next question, next question, next question” as though Mari’s hitting too close to home; Sohinki smiles and nods as though he agrees with Mari’s statement.

Remember how Joven and Sohinki likened themselves to romantic things in pop culture, which was covered in previous chapters? Well, Mari does it too.

In **[Smosh: The Horror Movie (Gametime w/ Smosh Games)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTFoulDzVo4)** , Mari and Sohinki are casting themselves and the rest of the Smosh family into the roles of the characters in the game Until Dawn. Now, they cast Sohinki as Mike and cast Joven as Jessica before changing their minds and casting him as Hannah. According to @blurryfacephann in their fanfic **Jovinki One Shots** , Jessica and Mike are together throwing sexual jokes at each other – like Joven and Sohinki - and Hannah had a crush on Mike. Also, Mari cheers when it seems as though Hannah and Mike are going to make out (even though it’s a prank – also reminiscent of Joven and Sohinki). By casting Sohinki as Mike and Joven as Jessica/Hannah, the two of them have once again been likened to romantic things in pop culture. It’s actually surprising just how accurate of a representation this is.

In **[Exploring Minecraft Civilisations (Maricraft)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlDlGYb7Mrs)** , Joven and Sohinki end up sharing a town together, to which Mari says, “You guys are domestic partners” (8:49). Of course, Joven protests by yelling, “We’re not domestic partners!” but that didn’t stop the editors from cutting to an image of Balki Bartokomous and Larry Appleton from the sitcom Perfect Strangers. To provide some context, Perfect Strangers chronicles the rocky relationship of Balki and Larry, two cousins who live together. The rocky relationship? This certainly sounds like Joven and Sohinki. And while there is no romantic relationship between the two characters from the sitcom, it has been placed in the video in such a way as to have romantic implications. It’s as though the editors are saying, “Nope, you guys totally like each other!” And in Smosh Games, editing is everything.

Speaking of editing, Wes (the assistant editor) is also a Jovinki shipper. He’s edited a bunch of shows including Backseat Gaming so a whole bunch of Jovinki moments in that can be linked back to him (such as them singing in nearly all their episodes together). And since he edited Backseat Gaming, I have a feeling that he played a part in getting the thumbnail of [**Plants Devour Zombie Crack (Backseat Gaming)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rK9zKtO038) to subtly reference the number five entry in **[Top 5 Friend zoned Video Game Heroes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xabHqh8w3c4)**.

This moment – or rather, cross-video link – may seem a little obscure, but some Jovinki implications made by other Smosh Games members are obscure as well.

One such Jovinki implication occurred in **[Slumber Party Games (Game Bang)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Qe5C7kEoKA)**. After Mari and Anthony lose Pass the Badger, Mari says that she and Anthony are going to mess with everyone else and that, “You guys are gonna make out with each other,” pointing to Sohinki and Joven (8:26). Not only is this moment obscure, it’s a strangely specific implication with no context whatsoever to back it up. It just came out of nowhere – literally. It was so far out of left field that Ian was bewildered by it, if his confused, “What?” was anything to go by.

This is not the only time where an obscure Jovinki implication has bewildered others in the group. When Lasercorn was about to draw on an image of Sohinki in [**We Suck at Drawing! (Game Bang)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urxk-92FOrU), he decides to draw Sohinki, “as Joven sees him.” Like everyone else, I was bewildered by this. Why would Lasercorn choose to draw Sohinki in such a specific way? And why on Earth would Sohinki respond by looking down and putting his hands together nervously, as though he’s afraid of what Lasercorn might draw?

Lasercorn is interesting because he’s the one with whom Sohinki and Jovenshire seemed to have better relationships with than each other. He’s the one that is the third person in the Unholy Trinity of Sohinki, Lasercorn and Jovenshire. In the moment above, he is a Jovinki shipper, yet he is also a Jovinki cock-block.

I mentioned in chapter 1 that Joven jumped in front of Sohinki’s avatar to save him in [**Sohinki’s Tower of Death (Grand Theft Smosh)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-Btv8gQFl4) and that Joven was trying to tell Sohinki that he loved him. But the video immediately cuts to Lasercorn saying, “I want it to be know that I got a double kill.” The editors have clearly portrayed this as Lasercorn interrupting Joven’s (subtle-ish) declaration of love for Sohinki. And remember how Flitz found it cute when Joven blew Sohinki a kiss in **[Breaking Bad in GTA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90KeKKxEDTs)**? Lasercorn interrupted the moment by shouting, “Joven! We have to cook” (12:17). Once again it’s been edited as though Lasercorn is cock-blocking the Jovinki moment. Perhaps this ties into @AnnabelleLYN_R5’s theory about Sohinki and Joven having a forbidden love.

I think it’s interesting how Lasercorn has been portrayed as a Jovinki cock-block in these two moments because it just highlights one thing: the fact that the editors are the biggest Jovinki shippers of them all. From camera cuts to close-up shots to music the editors have used a wide range of editing techniques to emphasise various Jovinki moments (which have been covered in this and previous chapters).

But the editors have extended their emphasis of Jovinki beyond the realm of moments within the videos themselves. They’ve taken such emphasis into the realm of thumbnails. Some of these thumbnails strongly imply Jovinki: one look at the thumbnail for  **[Grease Bang (Game Bang)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQptuYwxyTU)** will tell you that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Since the new year is coming up, I'll post the next chapter tomorrow as a special treat and then that will wrap up the meta.


	7. Bonus chapter: Thumbnails and Jovinki

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An analysis of the thumbnails for Smosh Games videos on YouTube and how it relates to Jovinki

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally published (and is still available on) Wattpad on 12th February 2016 as, "Jovenshire and Sohinki: Thumbnails (Meta)". I decided to include it in this meta rather than make it separate because the end of the last chapter flows on very nicely into this one and is intended to be a direct continuation of it.

It was once said during  **[Photoshop Tips& Tricks for YouTube (Smosh U – Lesson 110)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlbG0AlvreY) ** that thumbnails are key to drawing attention to a video and effectively conveying who you are (4:58). Like many other channels, the thumbnails of Smosh Games videos typically consist of one or more members of the team photo-shopped into an image related to what will happen in the video; gaming or otherwise.

But the Smosh Games thumbnails go further than that. These thumbnails have their own secret code; their own story to tell.

What’s important is _who_ they photo-shop into them and _why_ they have chosen these people. Upon analysis of the _who_ and _why_ of many of the thumbnails, I realised that most of them fulfilled one of the following three purposes:

  1. To try and maximise views by:


  * “Personality baiting” (eg. any of the early Game Bang thumbnails with Ian and Anthony on them)
  * “Click baiting” (eg. [**Awkward Body Painting! (Game Bang)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS-nodx5ry8))


  1. They show the _only_ people who are in the video (eg. any of the early Cage Match videos)
  2. To foreshadow/reference something that occurs in the video (eg. [**We’re Badass Aliens (Why We’re Single)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fnfCiLbly4))



You might be surprised at the examples I’ve chosen for the above reasons. You might be wondering why I didn’t put videos like  **[5 Star Strip Club (GTS)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1pz3aBmjnM) ** or **[Strip Smash Bros (Smosh Smash)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt2tLOmYoD4)** into the “click-bait” category. Or perhaps you’re wondering why I didn’t put  **[Princess Joven Talks Dirty (Cage Match)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjtISODpNuo)** (as well as all the later Cage Matches) into the second category.

That’s because these three videos, as well as many others, fit into more than one category. All three of them also fit into the third category; that of referencing something that occurs in the video. **5 Star Strip Club** references the group going to the strip club with lots of stars, **Strip Smash Bros** foreshadows Mari and Lasercorn showing off the most when they “stripped” and **Princess Joven Talks Dirty** foreshadows Joven winning, hence relegating him to the role of the “victorious” Captain Falcon.

On the other hand, **Awkward Body Painting!** _is_ solely click-bait. This is because the thumbnail implies that Wes lost, even though he didn’t. And **We’re Badass Aliens** _can_ be explained solely by reason three. The thumbnail is of Joven standing next to Predator, his tongue sticking out, with Sohinki’s face on the end of it. In the episode, Joven said that he would want to become Predator while Sohinki said he wanted to be an alien from Toejam and Earl. The link to the thumbnail is that Sohinki as the Funkatron alien would be the weakest and hence be the most likely to get eaten by Joven, the Predator.

In general, any thumbnail that fits into category three either foreshadows or references something that will occur in the video; gaming or otherwise. Many, many videos fit this category, such as **[Cold Shower Torture (Cell Outs)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGjUAUMx7Gk)** , showing Flitz and Mari looking scared, which references Flitz and Mari having the worst reactions to the freezing water; [**Cards against Humanity (Game Bang)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuBhAEiHkKI), showing Ian frowning, which references Ian coming in dead last; **[We are Sweaty Women (Game Bang)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYihmu6HhQ0)** , showing Anthony kicking Lasercorn, referencing Anthony’s team beating Lasercorn’s in both games they played against each other.

In fact, many of the recent videos can be linked to the foreshadowing category. I suggest that you go through the thumbnails yourself and try to find what event in the video they foreshadow in the thumbnail.

Even though you might ask me to break down every thumbnail for you, it’s so much better if you go through them yourself. Just think about how Joven made Sohinki get on the Segway board by himself in  **[Happy Wheels in Real Life! (Cell Outs)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyyM5kpkfJ0)** (8:30) without using him as a crutch. I don’t think Sohinki would have become so confident on the Segway if Joven had actually assisted him. The same applies to you guys analysing the thumbnails yourself.

Yet there are thumbnails that, although they fit into this purpose, really make you wonder about the _who_ and the _why_. Why would they specifically choose _those people_ to be in the thumbnail like that? Is it simultaneously referencing something else entirely?

[ **The Human Sleddapede (Bonus)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqa6wKVQA3Y) is a prime example of this. Part of the thumbnail shows Joven and Sohinki two-person-sledding together. While they actually did do this (at 5:44), so did Noah and Lasercorn (4:17) and Wes and Joe (5:44). Yet they weren’t the ones in the thumbnail. It was Joven and Sohinki who were in the thumbnail. Perhaps they chose them because they were the best known “combination” of people to try and get more views. But then that also begs the question: why, out of all the moments in the video, did they choose the moment with _Joven and Sohinki only_ to put as part of the thumbnail? And if the answer is that they couldn’t have fit the three-person-sledding into the thumbnail, well, they could have always rearranged or resized Olivia to cater for it. So are the editors very subtly pointing to Jovinki shippers and saying, “Hey, here’s your Jovinki click-bait,”?

 **[Plants Devour Zombie Crack (Backseat Gaming)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rK9zKtO038) ** is another example. The thumbnail, showing Sohinki as the zombie and Joven as the sunflower, foreshadows Sohinki doing the best at being the zombie while Joven did the worst. The idea is that Joven did so badly that he might as well have been the flower. And Sohinki, the one who did the best, would be the most likely to eat him. Yet there could have been another reason for it.

Remember **[Top 5 Friend Zone Video Game Heroes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xabHqh8w3c4)** , where the number five entry was the zombies from Plants vs Zombies? If you swap out any mention of “zombie” with “Sohinki” and “plant” with “Joven”, you get a strikingly accurate reflection of their relationship and the typical perception of it. Could the thumbnail for **Plants Devour Zombie Crack** be referencing this?1

 **[The Cutest Video Game Characters (Why We’re Single)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yTAI_9FIdY) ** also references something in the episode but is also a little bit strange. The thumbnail shows Joven and Boo with a heart between them and Sohinki between them with his hands out to defend himself. It’s clear why Joven, Boo and the heart are in it; it refers to Joven saying that Boo is super cute. But why would they photoshop Sohinki into it too? Sure, if they didn’t have him there, there would been a huge gap at the bottom. But if they needed to fill the negative space, they probably would have chosen…well, somet

hing else. Or maybe they could have made the heart, Joven or Boo bigger in size. If you look at it carefully, it actually looks like the heart is place between Joven _and Sohinki_. And Sohinki looked afraid of Boo. So are the editors implying that Sohinki loves Joven but Sohinki’s afraid that Boo would take Joven away from him?

But the strangest thumbnail I’ve seen so far is definitely **[Grease Bang (Game Bang)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQptuYwxyTU)**. This thumbnail has Joven as Danny and Sohinki as Sandy from Grease. This would imply that Joven and Sohinki lose and have to dance together.

But they don’t lose. They don’t even get _close_ to losing. This was Joven’s last individual _win_ before  **[Escaping the Slaughterhouse (Game Bang)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY73XqI6I7Y)** (over one and a half _years_ later). Out of all the people who hadn’t seen Grease, Sohinki came _first_. And of course Joven came first out of all the people who had seen Grease. Perhaps the editors are foreshadowing that they did so well amongst their “categories” of haven’t/have seen Grease that they might as well have been in the movie. Or perhaps they are using it as “Click-bait.”

But why would they use it as “Click-bait”? Jovinki is one of the rarest, most obscure ships. It’s the one ship that a lot of people think would never work. If they wanted to have “Click-bait” they would have had Ian and Anthony – the people who _actually lost_ and the ones who a lot of people ship so heavily – on the thumbnail.

Now that’s food for thought.

* * *

 

1This was the “link” I talked about in my story **Thumbnail Matchmaker** that inspired that story. If you guys want me too, I can write a “story justification” as an add-on to that chapter where I break down the number five entry from **Top 5 Friend Zone Video Game Heroes** and show how it accurately reflects Joven and Sohinki’s relationship. Let me know if you guys want it in the comments below!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's a wrap on the meta! Thank you so much for reading, and please leave comments below as to what you thought. I haven't written meta since this one, but my Jovinki moments compilation series on YouTube is meta in YouTube form. With very random commentary over the top.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading this! It’s a bit slow, but I’ll really kick it off in the next chapter. Leave your thoughts about this in the comments below.
> 
> Chapter 2 will be released in 2 days (because this one was so short).


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